Electric scam tries to get personal information

Officials: Only account number is needed to switch

A scam artist, posing as an electric supplier, recently tried to con a York County woman for her bank account number.

Corrinna Tompkins said she was all ears when a caller claiming to be with electric suppler IDT told her she was getting a $50 Visa gift card and a free month of electricity if she agreed to be part of a special rewards program.

"They were telling us that they were going to be the sole supplier of electricity for Met Ed and that we were going to get 7 percent taken off the top of our bill until September of 2013," Tompkins said.

She said she smelled a scam right away, because she already gets electricity from IDT and delivered by Met Ed.

Tompkins said she never gave the caller the chance to ask for personal information.

"I stopped them before they did. I wanted to do the investigation myself. I wanted to find out from IDT if this was legit," she said.

Tompkins said she called IDT and was told the number that called her is not from the company.

A call to the number was forwarded to a recording that said, "Thank you for taking the time to call. We apologize for any inconvenience our call to you has caused."

Ever since electric utilities were deregulated across the state a few years ago, dozens and dozens of alternative electric suppliers have entered the market and started to contact consumers. The change is something that consumers have never dealt with before and naturally many people are confused. The confusion is a scam artist's best weapon.

Electric officials said a consumer's best weapon is to be educated about electric choice.

If anyone calls or comes to your door trying to get you to switch suppliers, protect one very valuable piece of information.

"When switching accounts or dealing with a competitive supplier the only piece of information that they need from you is your account number," said Jen Kocher of the Public Utility Commission. "They do not need checking, credit card numbers or any other bit of personal information in order to change you over."

There's a $30,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of a bank robbery trio known as the Black Hat Bandits, suspected in a two-month string of robberies across Maryland and Virginia, the latest coming Monday.